DIY raw-edge wood, metal pipe leg pub table

Raw edge piece of wood

We came by the raw edge piece of wood from my parents. They are building their cottage and this was a piece of wood left over. They didn’t want to throw it away but didn’t really have a use for it. When they found out we were looking at making a pub table, they gifted us this amazing piece of wood.

Sanding-Preparing the wood

This particular piece of wood was too big for the planer so we had to sand it by hand. We started with 60grit sand paper.

We didn’t want to take the bark off and lose the raw edge look. We decided to scrub the surface with a wire bristle grill brush (we used an old one). This got the dirt and loose pieces off while keeping the integrity of the side.

We finished the surface of the wood with 150 grit sand paper on the electric sander.

Once the wood was smooth, we decided to skip a stain and go with a poly coat only. We really wanted to see the grains of the wood. We brushed on a coat of poly and let it dry. Optimal drying conditions are above 50F and below 90F. It was RIGHT at 50F when doing this project so our drying times were a bit longer. Between coats, we stored our paintbrush in a cup of unscented mineral sprits.

Once dry (no longer sticky) we sanded the top with 400 grit sand paper on the electric sander. We used the same sandpaper but hand sanded the sides of the wood.

I then brushed the wood clean with a small hand broom. I then rung out my paintbrush from the mineral spirits onto a rag. I used that damp rag to finish dusting all of the surfaces of the table.

I then used my now dry brush and did another coat of poly.

Before the final layer of poly, we used a 800 grit sandpaper to really make it a smooth surface for the final layer of poly.

Preparing the legs

The legs took some figuring. We used 3/4″ black steel plumbing pipe. We knew we wanted it bar height so we bought 2 24″ pieces. We did not take into account how much the joints added to the height so we ended up going with 2 18″ pieces of black steel plumbing pipe. We then realized that the coupling on the front legs did not meet the same height as the tee so we had to replace the coupling with Ts. We didn’t want the front legs to be free standing so we decided to put 90* elbows and connect them to the bottom. We then couldn’t find the 12″ pipe in black, we purchased stainless and spray painted with a matte black spray paint. We used the floor flanges to attach the pipe to the table top.

Shop Home Depot for the leg pieces

Once the table legs were assembled, the heights and all were correct, and we were almost complete, we removed all the stickers with a pampered chef scraper, got the sticker goo off with goo gone, and then removed the goo gone and the oil that comes on the pipes with dawn dish soap.

Once the legs were clean, we carried the legs and the table top down separately to better fit through door ways. We then laid the table top down finished side down, flipped the legs and screwed the floor flanges into the table top. We flipped over, and the table was complete! We matched with 2 mismatched barstools we currently have and we were done! Cheers!